Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Bad Back & Sykotyk Rampage Album Updates, Plus New Videos!!

Our backlogged news is almost cleared out, and on this very cold Wednesday, warm up with an older concert video, the latest from Sykotyk Rampage, and leading off, the newest videos and album plans from a popular duo band, so here's what you need to know!

We'll start with the latest from local grunge/hardcore duo Bad Back, including this question: Did you know that they released two CDs last year? Coming as a complete surprise to me, the guys announced on their Facebook page on Christmas that they'd just released a new "album type thing" with 6 songs, apparently titled "Bad Back Vol. 2", which followed the release of an earlier CD at some point prior to December (and we seriously didn't hear a thing about the first one, though their Twitter page acknowledged it once in October.) The second disc features the songs "Shirt Tucker", "#1 Hit Single", "Oh!", "Stop Listening To Phish", "What I Want", and an undisclosed Ivory Tower cover (possibly "Clarity"?), with versions of most available to stream on drummer Nathan Sauve's Soundcloud page, including tracks likely from the first disc. Each CD was apparently pressed only in limited quantities (25 in the case of "Vol. 2") on a "pay what you want" model, and it's unclear if a full digital release of both is in the cards (though it would be handy to make up for the low profile releases.)

In case you were curious, no, I don't have either Bad Back CD yet (I haven't had a chance to get the second one yet, and "Vol. 1" is apparently out of copies), but if you can help us get either CD (physically or on mp3 with album art scans), let us know on Facebook A.S.A.P.! A review of one or both is very possible for the site in the next few months if I can get even mp3 copies. The intentionally quiet release took me off guard a bit, but Bad Back have a good sound going, and hopefully it paid off with some new fans! Hopefully we'll get copies of them for the site soon though. In the meantime, Nathan uploaded 5 videos of Bad Back's set onto his YouTube channel yesterday from their set opening for Detroit's reunion at The Algonquin Pub on December 23rd! (Nathan accidentally credited the videos as being upstairs at The Rockstar Bar.) The videos are of Bad Back playing "Oh!", "#1 Hit Single", "Shirt Tucker", a cover of Hole's "Violet", and as embedded below, "Party Bus".

Unlike his Detroit video, these were filmed to the right of the stage (though behind Nathan's kit due to his sideways setup.) The videos are of strong quality, capturing Bad Back's lively & aggressive sound well, though the lighting is only really effective on the stage itself from this angle. Nice to see some more new videos from Bad Back, so give "Party Bus" a look below, and see more above!

Next up, local blue Chinese metal crash punk quartet Sykotyk Rampage have announced their 2015 album plans, and they're starting surprisingly early! On their Facebook page on December 15th, the band announced plans to release 4 "albums" in 2015 (matching last year's total), which will push their discography to 51 albums, with three having their title and album covers announced there. The 48th is called "Yamaraja 2: Viking Saga" (a sequel to one of their 2013 albums), while the 49th will be "Wyrd Radio" (which was dropped from the 2014 release plans, but will now see the light of day), and the 51st will be called "Mistress of Lightning". The 50th album has a name and album cover to be announced, but Sykotyk Rampage did make a special point to tease it, so are there big things afoot for the milestone? Now, in recent years, the guys have released their albums in the summer or fall, but they're starting things early, as "Yamaraja 2" was posted on Reverbnation on Thursday!

Again posted only as a free stream without a paid purchase option for the whole thing, "Yamaraja 2" features 13 songs and 14 "sagas" that link the album's concept and story, but the songs will appeal to fans of the crash just like their other material! Given the sudden release, we could see the other three 2015 albums at any point now, so stay tuned just in case, and give "Yamaraja 2: Viking Saga" a listen via the above links!

Finally, here's a hard rock cover from a concert and video upload that flew under our radar! Uploaded by YouTube user dtwalker79 (the uploader of many recent Mike Case's Junior All-Stars videos), this video is from a related Halloween event of some kind at The Canadian Nightclub in October 2012, where a (possibly one-off?) band featuring Mike Case played a set. He, former Unkle Fester/WFO bassist Rob Gilmar, and current Mourning Wood drummer T.J. Case were filmed by dtwalker79 covering three songs, including AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" (albeit incomplete) at the start! The video also includes their cover of the Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" (followed by an extended jam and a drum solo), before closing with a cover of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", so click each song name to go to that specific song!

Note that the band's joined by a young kid named Ryan (dressed as Woody from Toy Story) early during the second song, possibly from the Junior All-Stars, and while he doesn't know it well, he's having fun! Strong performance of these classic rock hits, and Mike's vocals, though raspy, fit well on each, especially for AC/DC, so give the full video a look below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!